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Post completion depression?

I’m not sure there even is such a thing… Whatever the case i am however sure that i’ve come down with something like it. It seems that finally finding that last book was both a blessing and a curse. I’m also seriously depressed and stressed out by what’s going on in my country and i’ve started to try and tune out from it as much as possible and just not think about what’s going on. I guess that the combination of these two things has lead to my lack of posting and well, interest in just about anything lately… Oh well, i have no intention to turn this into a blog about politics so let’s back to what it’s supposed to be about! I’ve never, in lack of a better word, “seriously” collected anything before i started this thing. Naturally this means that i’ve also never completed a collection of anything so i was of course unaware of what happens to you when you do. And i can’t say that i enjoy the feeling that comes with it…

I’m sure it sounds both dorky and nerdy but i had such a good time and so much fun chasing after these books and everything that came with it and now all of a sudden there’s no point in doing it anymore. Sure, i can start trying to find duplicates of pretty much every single book. But it will never be the same thing, i’ll never feel that same (again, dorky and nerdy) rush of excitement when seeing something new on a list somewhere. At least it doesn’t feel like i will. Hmmm… this sounds way more depressing than it really is, hopefully all of this is just a temporary slump. I’m pretty sure that’s the case, at least i’ve come to the realization that i enjoy collecting things. Now i just need to find the new “thing” that will fill the void. The natural step would of course be to again put more focus on the records, and i’ve tried to force myself to do so in the last coupel of months. But of course it’s not something you can just “do”, there has to be something out there that’s both available and affordable. I’ve had a pretty good idea of which covers i still need to find but last weekend i actually sat down and made a list. Turns out i had forgotten about a couple… I’ve said it a million times before but i know that i will never complete this collection, and such an insight is hardly motivating. Maybe i need to try and break it down a little and put a realistic goal of trying to find one every year or so. Here are the ones i still need to get a hold of:

…that’s a lot of records. Not to mention a lot of rare and expensive ones too. And quite possibly i’ve still forgotten about one or two… And it also doesn’t include the latest newly discovered cover that was on ebay recently. If you flip it all 180° it also means that i don’t really have more than a couple of the really rare ones. Basically just the Ratfab, the Boston Pops and the Walter Steding, and that last one i didn’t really find myself but was instead part of a far to generous trade with Guy Minnebach. I have reissues of a couple of these and one or two others would be an easy pick up, but yeah… Not that it’s all about finding or having ALL of the holy grails for me but in order to keep the steam up you occassionally need to find that special something. And when it comes down to it this is a difficult list to work with in 2016. Another thing i’ve mentioned a million times is the possibility to find the books at bargain prices and how much that added to the fun of it all. That’s something that’s just not possible when it comes to the records, at least not these records. But i guess there is nothing else to do than to stick with it, soones it later i might be able to find something somewhere. I’ve actually gotten a very generous offer from Guy Minnebach to buy a copy of the Nocturnes cover that he got pretty cheap a while ago. An offer i have of course gladly accepted, just need to get my act together and book a trip to Budapest this coming spring/summer and go pick it up.

Apart from the obvious record covers i’ve also been thinking about cassettes and more specifically little cool variations of them. I was quite intruiged by the post Guy made on this subject a while ago and it got me interested. I have no idea how many of these there might be though, i’m thinking there’s not THAT many and that trying to find out would probably involve some tedious and unrewarding work. But, maybe… why not? That leads us into magazines… If you disregard the fact that they appear to be crazy hard to find and in many instances pretty damn expensive i’m still inexplicably drawn to them. If, and it’s a big if, this would be my next quest i’ll probably limit this to magazine covers from the 50’s which would mean there are 12-13 or so to be found… The reason for this would simply be that these are the only ones i’ve ever seen listed online. Guess i would also have to start by getting Maréchals book on the subject, which i’m told is pretty good. Unlike with the books i’ve not been able to find some magical search thingy for old and rare magazines, so i guess that pretty much narrows it down to being forced to used ebay…

This turned into a way more negative post that i had intended. But i guess that’s how it is, you have your ups and downs with this thing just as with everything else. And as said i think it’s just temporary. I actually have something positive to end it all with. Even though i’m not as obsessed as i was a couple of months ago i still check Amazon and ebay every morning, guess it’s now too deeply rooted in my system to ever be able to stop doing. Anyways… once again the cover that i love to hate was on there and for a BIN of $40 i couldn’t resist. I find it interesting that it’s sealed seeing as though i thought these yellow ones were promo copies. But maybe they sealed those as well, i have no idea… Maybe it would be a better strategy to stop buying things i already have in order to make room in the budget for things i don’t yet have, hmmm…

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2 thoughts on “Post completion depression?”

I know how you feel, Niklas. The only thing that’s worse is to complete your collection, and then not have access to see your treasures again. I don’t regret giving it all away, and as you say, the thrill of the chase was much more fun than actually possessing the items.
Cheers,
Frank

Thanks for your support, Frank! We can go into therapy together… In one way i can’t believe you gave away such an incredible collection. But in another way i understand completely. Have you never had any second thoughts at all? At least we’ll always have the memories. 🙂 Maybe you should start with the books and i’ll go for the magazines? 🙂